Cancer is a class of diseases characterized by abnormal cell division and out-of-control cell growth. In the treatment of cancer, some drugs are used to inhibit the cell growth or to kill the cancer cells. Cisplatin, oxaliplatin, carboplatin and nedaplatin are some of the important clinically used platinum-based anticancer drugs (1). It is believed that these drugs inhibit the growth of the cells via interaction with DNA (2). Although these commercial drugs are used for the treatment of various types of cancer, they show side effects due to their high toxicity on the normal cells (3). Therefore, they have some deleterious side on human health.
In the last decade, the investigation of anticancer activities of palladium complexes substantially increased due to their chemical similarity to the platinum based compounds (4). In addition, in vitro and in vivo studies of palladium complexes have shown promising results and they were even also found to be cytotoxic on cancer stem cells (5). As a result, works related to highly cytotoxic new palladium complexes became important in this field.
Palladium (II) complexes of 5,5-diethylbarbiturate have received less attention and in the literature, only one synthesis and structure of a complex (cis-[PdCl(barb)(PPh3)2], (PPh3=triphenylphosphine) is reported (6). However, the anticancer activity of this complex is not known. On the other hand, a palladium (II) complex with bis(2-pyridylmethyl)amine (bpma), {[Pd(bpma)Cl](sac)·2H2O, where sac is the saccharinate anion}, showed a cytotoxic effect on A549 cells, similar to cisplatin (7).
One of the patents in the literature concerning this subject matter is the patent application numbered U.S. Pat. No. 7,935,728B1. However, when the content of the application is evaluated, it is seen that it has a very different molecular formula.
American patent application numbered U.S. Pat. No. 4,584,316 is related to palladium(II) complexes with anticancer feature. However a complex with Pd(II)AmXn structure is mentioned in said application.
Another invention numbered TR2011 000198B, which belongs to some of the present inventors, titled “New palladium(II) complexes with anticancer activity in low dosages”. In said application, use of the complexes with the formulae of [Pd(terpy)(sac)](sac) and [Pd(terpy)Cl](sac) in the cancer therapy as anticancer drugs were mentioned. However, structures of mentioned compounds are different from the compound which is subject matter of the invention and xenograft studies on NOD/SCID mice about mentioned compound, an inevitably critical stage in the development of a cancer drug, were not performed. In the present application, the results of the xenograft studies on NOD/SCID mice are presented.
In conclusion, the technique of the prior art mentioned above fails to provide solutions to the existing problems, thus necessitates an improvement in the concerned technical field.